


The Man That Got Away

by aseriesofolafevents



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 14:37:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17408759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aseriesofolafevents/pseuds/aseriesofolafevents
Summary: In which Queenie goes out, Newt appears in a picture and Tina burns everything.ORThe one where Tina finds out Leta is engaged to Mr Scamander and believes it to be Newt.





	The Man That Got Away

**Author's Note:**

> hi ok so yesterday a boy broke my heart. so i wrote this.

Tina smiled as she re-read Newt’s last letter, allowing her finger tips to trace the way his signature indented into the paper at the bottom of the page. He had said, ‘All my affection’, this time, a step up from last week’s ‘Best wishes’. It was as if the more letters they shared, the closer they got to revealing how they really felt about each other. When he had left New York, she had found a glisten of hope that he could feel the same way as her, but now, almost four months later, she was almost certain that Newt Scamander had feelings for her, a thought which dazzled and delighted her beyond imagination.

This letter, had brought the news of his recent book signing, in a small London book store, called Flourish and Blotts. Of course Newt had emphasised his discomfort at the amount of people that were there to support him, despite him having a small ‘group of close friends’ to ‘stay close and keep him calm’. Tina sighed a little, wishing she had been there standing at his side. Still, ‘The Owl’s Post’, would be delivered in less then half an hour and she knew there would be at least a small segment on Newt’s book signing, which she would read with intent enthusiasm.

The bedroom door opened and a made up Queenie swept out of it, bouncing her blonde girls with one hand and finishing her lipstick with the other. Tina narrowed her eyes at her sister’s light blue dress and her tall heels, sniffing as her nostrils consumed the sweet perfume her sister was ladened in. The sun was falling quickly, and the city would soon be descended in darkness and frankly, Tina was confused at where her sister would be going at this time. As much as she hated to admit it, her and Queenie were not as close as before, a bitter barrier had sprung up between them and Tina wasn’t quite sure how to knock it down. Up to a couple of weeks ago, her sister had been inconsolable, wandering around the apartment, like a lost little child in search of a home. Tina was just starting to get worried, when, all of a sudden, something had changed. Queenie began to act normal, or at least fairly normal. She took pride in her appearance again, spoke with the little titter that made her voice so mesmerising and beamed from cheek to cheek. To say Tina was suspicious was an understatement.

“Where you off to Queenie?” She called from her perch in her arm chair. She tried to sound casually interested, not wishing to scare her sister away or add to the barrier that kept them so far apart.  
Queenie looked up, as if just noticing Tina was in the room, plopping herself on the sofa opposite Tina, to do her heels up tighter. “I’m goin out with a friend.” She explained, not able to stop the smile from appearing on her beautiful face.  
“Would this friend happen to be a gentlemen?” Tina raised an eyebrow as she now noticed her sisters blackened lashes and dangly earrings.  
“No.” Queenie said a bit too sharply, sitting up abruptly. She seemed to realise her snap, since she relaxed a little and continued. “No, just a girl who works on the front desks, you don’t know her.”  
“Try me.” Tina urged.  
Queenie let out a laugh which seemed a little too fake. “Teen you’re awful inquisitive today, don’t you trust me?”  
Tina paused knowing full well that her sister could hear that she didn’t trust her and believed she was up to something. Queenie quirked her head to the side, waiting to see what Tina would do next.  
“Just wonderin.” Tina leapt over the question at hand, watching Queenie roll her eyes with irritation.  
“Anyways,” Queenie continued, brushing out a crumple in her dress. “You’re the one with all the gentlemans Teen, not me.”  
Tina’s heart skipped a beat. “What you talkin about Queenie?”  
“If you weren’t so caught up on Newt Scamander, it would be very clear that Tolliver is taken with you and-” Queenie gasped. “Oh! He asked you out!”  
Tina furrowed her brows, irritated at her sister’s open perusal of her thoughts. “He asked me to go to get dinner with me to discuss a case.” She corrected her sister, even though the last part wasn’t technically true and she could tell that her sister knew it. “But I turned him down.”  
“Course you did.” Queenie said, in a satisfied triumphant way. “Because your in love with Newt.”  
“Well ye- Dont read my mind!” Tina snapped, furiously as Queenie giggled, jumping up. Her blue dress fluttered around and Tina was reminded of the way butterflies wings flutter when flying. A crash against the window implied that the owl had arrived carrying today’s newspaper. Queenie took it is a chance to make a dash for the door.  
“Got to be off! Don’t want to keep Jac- Jacquelyn waiting.” She faltered slightly, yet Tina was too caught up in getting the paper to notice.

Her heart pounded against her ribcage as she flicked through the main pages which were splashed with Grindelwald’s escape. She already knew the facts, they were forced down her throat every day at work and she certainly did not need to see them now. But, on the second from back page, was an article covering an entire page about the book signing.   
And there was a photo.

The first thing she saw in the photo was her. Leta. Looking more beautiful then she had ever looked in the scratched up, darkened photo in Newt’s case. Tina watched as the Leta flashed her startingly white teeth. Tina watched as Leta brushed her hand against Newt’s arm, bringing it to rest just above his wrist. And Tina watched as Leta’s left hand sparkled, a ring sitting comfortably on her fourth finger.

It was as though someone had stamped on her back, knocking all the wind out of her body. Her eyes grew foggy and her chest began to pang as she moved her hand across the page finding the words she never wanted to read and yet needed to see.  
“Newt Scamander stands with an unknown woman and Leta Lestrange, soon to be Scamander.”

A loud choking sob escaped her before she had even realised it was developing. Newt’s face, so awkwardly adorable, stared up at her, as if begging her to understand. A small red headed woman hovered in the back, as if unaware of her place and an arm to the other side of Leta hovered mid air, the owner’s face and body chopped off.

She didn’t even need to read the rest of the article, her mind swam with Leta’s name, she heard ‘soon to be Scamander’ ringing in her ears and, with a small scream of frustration she shot up, stormed into her bedroom and, reaching underneath her bed pulled out the small stash that contained all of the letters Newt had sent her over the last four months. 

There were 17 to be exact. She didn’t need to check, she just knew. Seventeen oaths of lies. Seventeen broken covenants. She hated them all, right in this second. And she hated Leta, god how she hated Leta. She wanted to crush Leta.

No, that was a lie. She didn’t want to crush Leta. She couldn’t crush Leta, for she knew that Leta held Newt’s heart, which was a thing she could never harm. Her stomach filled with the acidic reminder of her love, festering and contaminating everything inside her. 

The letters burned slowly. Too slowly. She wanted them to be gone for ever, so that she no longer had any physical proof that Newt had ever even been in her life. The words melted, the paper singed and Tina sat on the floor and cried. She sobbed and sobbed and just when she thought she had cried everything she had left to cry, the tears came again, filing her eyes and pouring out one by one.   
It was only as the last piece of paper crumpled into ashes, Newt’s endearing eyes looking into her soul, that the last tear rolled out of her eyes. She picked herself up of the ground, leaving behind her sadness and headed straight for her desk, where she pulled out a quill and paper, writing at the top what she knew she had to do.  
“Dear Mr Tolliver,  
Are you still up for dinner on Friday?”

It was on her desk that her younger sister found her when she arrived home, several hours later then she had promised, her cheeks rosy red from the wine that her accompant had procured, her stomach full from the good food he had filled her with and her eyes glistening with happiness from the kiss he had departed her with. Her eyes momentarily flitted over to her older sister, asleep on her own work and Queenie did not bother to even listen for Tina’s dreamy thoughts. Her own happy thoughts were loud enough. She never thought to question why the fire was burning longer than it should have been. She didn’t try to push her sister’s hair back to reveal her tear stained face. And if she had sniffed the air she would have smelt the burnt remains of the man that got away.


End file.
